I just saw this, though it's 6 years ago. I think the truth of what he's saying is even more evident today.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Io3sdAAcZLw
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Io3sdAAcZLw
Video Musk: Colleges are basically for fun and to prove you can do your chores. But they’re not for learning.
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Coming from a guy who has two college degrees, LOL. Some of which I agree with but not all. Having a college degree is like a ticket to a sporting event. If you don't have a ticket, there are many places where you won't be able to get into the door. Not having a college degree certainly doesn't eliminate you from success, but it can be a longer and harder path unless you are a female and have an Only Fan's page or an individual with outstanding entrepreneurial spirit and work ethic. I'm sure there are more examples of how to be successful without one but having a college degree certainly helps.
I agree that, unfortunately, it's still a necessary "ticket punch" for many career paths.
But when it comes to VALUE in terms of what you pay and what you get... It's jumped off a cliff. The cost is exhorbitant. And what you actually get is arguably and provably SHIT.
College has become INDOCTRINATION. That wasn't happening when I went to college. I can honestly say that there was ZERO political indoctrination. NOW?? Holy shit. College is now a political brainwashing operation.
True, I don't know if it was Musk or someone else, but I've heard this theory before and the part i remember was that the College degree basically only shows your prospective employer that you are disciplined enough to complete a project and are capable of taking instruction.
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College graduits today are mostly a bunch of loosers who cant spell so good.
Some attend college in pursuit of their Mrs. degree.
Others attend because they are good at some sport. There are only two reasons I even got into a college. 1. a baseball scholarship; 2. My SAT score. My grades were not stellar in high school. I rarely attended class my last two years in high school. I'd show up for tests. It was a miracle I graduated.
I found college so much more engaging. Fewer distractions too. There were times when I wasn't sure I was going to make it in engineering and have to change majors but I hung in there and managed to keep a 3.0 or better GPA. I graduated with a 3.5. In the upper middle of the class ranking. I avoided the liberal arts as much as I could and only took the required courses. The exception was philosophy. I rather enjoyed that. It does help you develop critical thinking skills. I have often pondered the absurdity of existence.
Some attend college in pursuit of their Mrs. degree.
Others attend because they are good at some sport. There are only two reasons I even got into a college. 1. a baseball scholarship; 2. My SAT score. My grades were not stellar in high school. I rarely attended class my last two years in high school. I'd show up for tests. It was a miracle I graduated.
I found college so much more engaging. Fewer distractions too. There were times when I wasn't sure I was going to make it in engineering and have to change majors but I hung in there and managed to keep a 3.0 or better GPA. I graduated with a 3.5. In the upper middle of the class ranking. I avoided the liberal arts as much as I could and only took the required courses. The exception was philosophy. I rather enjoyed that. It does help you develop critical thinking skills. I have often pondered the absurdity of existence.
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So, if you think you have seen this before, you have. I thought it was worth re-posting for those that missed it the first time. This was written in the 90's, so a degeneration factor of 5 or so should be factored in to bring it up to today's standard... maybe more after watching some of these "campus interviews" that show just how ignorant the current college students are.
Cooper had opinions on what constituted a "college education", and what a young man needs to know before he leaves his parents household to go off to college or life on his own.
Here are those thoughts.
We have had recent occasion to mix with the bright young people on a university campus. We discover that now everyone is supposed to be entitled to a "college education," the term has lost its meaning. Today college can be regarded as "remedial high school." The four high school years are apparently spent doing something, but being educated does not seem to be it. This makes the position of the visiting professor pretty entertaining. These bright young people in your class appear to be astonished when confronted by even an elementary awareness of what used to be called "common knowledge." Out in the corridor one overhears variations on, "Well, I never thought about that before" all the way to the parking lot.
In that connection, is it not curious that we seem to hold up "education" as a commodity which can be bought and sold? What has happened, of course, is that we have sought to quantify education by the issuance of diplomas and degrees and have thus inflated our intellectual standards along with our currency. It has been suggested that we are now stratifying society into two levels: Those with a college degree and those without. The notion that a college degree signifies some sort of absolute is obviously ridiculous. Today a bachelor's degree from a prominent university is not nearly as significant as a high school diploma was 50 years ago. We have millions of degrees today, while the onrush of ignorance threatens to engulf us. The notion that education is trade craft will lead us to a race of tradesmen, only a few of whom may be educated - and those will be mainly self-educated.
When I took my examinations for my humble little master's degree in history, those examinations were oral. One sat in confrontation with a committee of professors who engaged him in conversation. By this means it was possible to determine just how much the applicant knew about his subject.
"True-or-false" was not an issue. The directive was to expound. This, in my opinion, was a much better system than we encounter today.
Among the other signs of times, we discover that coping is unfashionable. As far as I can tell, today's young people are taught not to handle problems but rather to call for help. This is very bad race conditioning. As a boy I led a privileged life, but I nonetheless often got into jams beyond reach of assistance. I never called for help, and my father would have sneered at me if I had done so. At age seventeen while driving alone I blew a tire. I had never seen a wheel changed but I figured the matter out by myself. This is not to boast but only to point out that young men should be expected to cope.
Does it not seem that far too much is being made of "a college education"? Just what is meant by that? A bachelor's degree from a major institution was at one time pretty significant, but now it seems to be solely a matter of money. We find that what used to be certification of a rounded personality is now sort of a remedial trade school. When I was a boy, the major universities were distinguishable from the second rate. Perhaps they still are, but that is hard to verify. We find people majoring in some sort of tradecraft before they have learned to tell the Greek myths from the Old Testament. And in an increasingly technical culture, it is difficult to tell what matters in the way of background, and perhaps it does not, but still it is nice to know what is being paid for when one is paying for "a college education."
When I went aboard the USS Pennsylvania at the beginning of World War II, officers of experience dined in the "wardroom,"whereas ensigns and second lieutenants were assigned to the "junior officer's mess." In the JO mess we took pleasure in needling each other about the relative backgrounds of the naval academy boys and the graduates of civilian universities. The naval academy boys insisted that our shortcoming was that we had never suffered a" pleb year," whereas we maintained that they had not obtained a" college education" but rather a trade school certificate. In those days the academy did attempt to turn out "officers and gentlemen, insisting upon such things as French and ballroom dancing, which was more than Harvard or Stanford could do. On the other hand, the academy boys were a distinctly unworldly group and without social contact for the previous four years. There was room for endless discussion here. Snuffy Puller, brother of the distinguished Chesty Puller, was our company commander at Basic School and made no attempt to conceal his scorn for what he thought of as "college boys." Just what a young man is good for at age 21 is a good question but more depends upon his family than his school. This, of course, is assuming that he has a family. In today's culture there seems to be less and less of that. Before a young man leaves home, there are certain things he should know and certain skills at which he should be adept. We used to kick this around on watch and we covered a lot of ground. What should a young male of 21 know and what should he be able to do? There are no conclusive answers to those questions, but they are certainly worth asking. We agreed upon "civics" or what was called American government. A young man should know how this country is run and how it got that way. He should know the Federalist Papers and de Tocqueville, and he should know recent world history. If he does not know what has been tried in the past, he cannot very well avoid those pitfalls as they come up in the future.
Superficialities, of course, are rife. A young man should be computer literate and moreover should know Hemingway from James Joyce. He should know how to drive a car well - such as is not covered in "Driver Ed." He should know how to fly a light airplane. He should know how to shoot well. He should know elementary geography, both worldwide and local. He should have a cursory knowledge of both zoology and botany. He should know the fundamentals of agriculture and corporate economy. He should be well qualified in armed combat, boxing, wrestling, judo, or the equivalent. He should know how to manage a motorcycle. He should be comfortable in at least one foreign language, and more if appropriate to his background. He should be familiar with remedial medicine.
These things should be available before a son leaves his father's household. They do not constitute "a college education," which may or may not be a trade school. Some of the academy boys were fairly well qualified for life, and some were not. The civilians varied widely from superior to disastrous. We had a major war to fight, and we did the best we could, which was not bad, considering the problem. I met some pretty good people in that war, and I am pleased to have known them. My first tour at sea-going was not deadly, and only a couple of my friends were killed. Later on, things changed. The hazards of war as they stand today vary as to time and place, but the risk is always there. When large numbers of people of opposing viewpoints are trying to kill you, they may sometimes succeed. We play this as it comes.
Cooper had opinions on what constituted a "college education", and what a young man needs to know before he leaves his parents household to go off to college or life on his own.
Here are those thoughts.
We have had recent occasion to mix with the bright young people on a university campus. We discover that now everyone is supposed to be entitled to a "college education," the term has lost its meaning. Today college can be regarded as "remedial high school." The four high school years are apparently spent doing something, but being educated does not seem to be it. This makes the position of the visiting professor pretty entertaining. These bright young people in your class appear to be astonished when confronted by even an elementary awareness of what used to be called "common knowledge." Out in the corridor one overhears variations on, "Well, I never thought about that before" all the way to the parking lot.
In that connection, is it not curious that we seem to hold up "education" as a commodity which can be bought and sold? What has happened, of course, is that we have sought to quantify education by the issuance of diplomas and degrees and have thus inflated our intellectual standards along with our currency. It has been suggested that we are now stratifying society into two levels: Those with a college degree and those without. The notion that a college degree signifies some sort of absolute is obviously ridiculous. Today a bachelor's degree from a prominent university is not nearly as significant as a high school diploma was 50 years ago. We have millions of degrees today, while the onrush of ignorance threatens to engulf us. The notion that education is trade craft will lead us to a race of tradesmen, only a few of whom may be educated - and those will be mainly self-educated.
When I took my examinations for my humble little master's degree in history, those examinations were oral. One sat in confrontation with a committee of professors who engaged him in conversation. By this means it was possible to determine just how much the applicant knew about his subject.
"True-or-false" was not an issue. The directive was to expound. This, in my opinion, was a much better system than we encounter today.
Among the other signs of times, we discover that coping is unfashionable. As far as I can tell, today's young people are taught not to handle problems but rather to call for help. This is very bad race conditioning. As a boy I led a privileged life, but I nonetheless often got into jams beyond reach of assistance. I never called for help, and my father would have sneered at me if I had done so. At age seventeen while driving alone I blew a tire. I had never seen a wheel changed but I figured the matter out by myself. This is not to boast but only to point out that young men should be expected to cope.
Does it not seem that far too much is being made of "a college education"? Just what is meant by that? A bachelor's degree from a major institution was at one time pretty significant, but now it seems to be solely a matter of money. We find that what used to be certification of a rounded personality is now sort of a remedial trade school. When I was a boy, the major universities were distinguishable from the second rate. Perhaps they still are, but that is hard to verify. We find people majoring in some sort of tradecraft before they have learned to tell the Greek myths from the Old Testament. And in an increasingly technical culture, it is difficult to tell what matters in the way of background, and perhaps it does not, but still it is nice to know what is being paid for when one is paying for "a college education."
When I went aboard the USS Pennsylvania at the beginning of World War II, officers of experience dined in the "wardroom,"whereas ensigns and second lieutenants were assigned to the "junior officer's mess." In the JO mess we took pleasure in needling each other about the relative backgrounds of the naval academy boys and the graduates of civilian universities. The naval academy boys insisted that our shortcoming was that we had never suffered a" pleb year," whereas we maintained that they had not obtained a" college education" but rather a trade school certificate. In those days the academy did attempt to turn out "officers and gentlemen, insisting upon such things as French and ballroom dancing, which was more than Harvard or Stanford could do. On the other hand, the academy boys were a distinctly unworldly group and without social contact for the previous four years. There was room for endless discussion here. Snuffy Puller, brother of the distinguished Chesty Puller, was our company commander at Basic School and made no attempt to conceal his scorn for what he thought of as "college boys." Just what a young man is good for at age 21 is a good question but more depends upon his family than his school. This, of course, is assuming that he has a family. In today's culture there seems to be less and less of that. Before a young man leaves home, there are certain things he should know and certain skills at which he should be adept. We used to kick this around on watch and we covered a lot of ground. What should a young male of 21 know and what should he be able to do? There are no conclusive answers to those questions, but they are certainly worth asking. We agreed upon "civics" or what was called American government. A young man should know how this country is run and how it got that way. He should know the Federalist Papers and de Tocqueville, and he should know recent world history. If he does not know what has been tried in the past, he cannot very well avoid those pitfalls as they come up in the future.
Superficialities, of course, are rife. A young man should be computer literate and moreover should know Hemingway from James Joyce. He should know how to drive a car well - such as is not covered in "Driver Ed." He should know how to fly a light airplane. He should know how to shoot well. He should know elementary geography, both worldwide and local. He should have a cursory knowledge of both zoology and botany. He should know the fundamentals of agriculture and corporate economy. He should be well qualified in armed combat, boxing, wrestling, judo, or the equivalent. He should know how to manage a motorcycle. He should be comfortable in at least one foreign language, and more if appropriate to his background. He should be familiar with remedial medicine.
These things should be available before a son leaves his father's household. They do not constitute "a college education," which may or may not be a trade school. Some of the academy boys were fairly well qualified for life, and some were not. The civilians varied widely from superior to disastrous. We had a major war to fight, and we did the best we could, which was not bad, considering the problem. I met some pretty good people in that war, and I am pleased to have known them. My first tour at sea-going was not deadly, and only a couple of my friends were killed. Later on, things changed. The hazards of war as they stand today vary as to time and place, but the risk is always there. When large numbers of people of opposing viewpoints are trying to kill you, they may sometimes succeed. We play this as it comes.